Precarious Decisions
by sfhuot
Summary: Rapunzel, after having been falsely convinced she was ditched by Flynn, is found by Jack Frost. He unwisely decides to invite her to stay with him as she has been abandoned by all but her stepmother, and the two slowly fall in love. What she doesn't know is Flynn is still out there, looking for her, and some things you just can't forget.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This is a Jack Frost/Rapunzel fanfiction_

_This chapter is particularly short because each chapter is a switch between Rapunzel/Jack POV and I wanted to switch to Jack at this particular moment._

Chapter One

POV of Rapunzel

Rapunzel watched Flynn's boat floating off. He didn't look back. Her lip began to tremble as she waited in vain to wake up from this dream-turned-nightmare. Her spirit felt as wilted as the flowers still firmly stuck in her hair. She sat down on the log and dropped her head into her hands. She couldn't help but feel the tears trickling down her face into her slightly parted fingertips. What had begun as the most exciting and exhilarating time of her life now felt like some cruel trick that had been played on her. She silently shook in the darkness, goose bumps appearing on her skin as the wind made its way over the water. At least the wind was almost comfortable; it surrounded her like a chilly blanket that meant well. She slowly made her way back to the campsite. The fire had burnt out and she vainly attempted to restart it with the flint that Flynn had certainly forgotten; he wouldn't have left behind a utilizable tool on purpose. She struck the flint until a spark finally caught. As the fire grew larger, she huddled, her arms around her legs, her eyelashes still damp from the now invisible tears.

Even with the fire, the clearing was disconcertingly cold. Surrounded by trees, the clearing should have been sheltered, but her goosebumps remained nonetheless as the wind occasionally shifted. She eventually fell asleep, somehow, curled up between the fire and the fallen tree. She was completely alone; and petrified of it.

Rapunzel had terrible nightmares as she slept; the kind where you toss and turn and then wake up in a sweat with your hands gripping the ground and your heart pounding. She felt, for some reason, like there was something nearby; perhaps an animal… or a bandit. From the ground she slowly grabbed the longest fallen branch she could find. "Who's there?" she said shakily. There was a tremor in the tree above her and she jumped, paranoia getting the best of her. A tiny glimmer of hope in Rapunzel's mind told her it was Flynn… the realist in her said it was a woodland creature, possibly friendly, most likely not.

Suddenly, the tree where the shaking had occurred began to change. The bark was slowly growing tiny, intricate floral patterns of… ice? She fell back, not sure how one was meant to react to a tree growing ice. Suddenly it stopped and what seemed to be an invisible stick or finger traced into the finite detail, "My name is Jack Frost."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

POV of Jack Frost

_Approximately 7 hours earlier_

Jack had been searching for the quiet sobbing noise for only a few moments when he found her. A girl no older than 17, with silvery blonde hair that trailed on behind her for several meters. Her head was in her hands so he couldn't see her face, but he could tell she was crying by not only the noise but the way her shoulders shook with each sob.

His center being fun, Jack despised seeing people cry. It made him feel immensely uncomfortable, like he was at the frozen lake again, but this time he was awake with an anchor bolted to his chest.

Jack instinctively got a bit closer and he saw her shiver and guilt flooded him. He couldn't even comfort someone without them shaking the whole time. She looked up at the water, straight through him, her eyes watering. He turned and saw she was watching a boat with a lone passenger sail off.

After another hour or so, the girl wiped her eyes and stood up. The boat was out of sight by now; she slowly trekked back into the forest. Jack leaped from branch to branch to follow her, gripping his staff and thinking guiltily of the Guardians. Tooth was expecting all of them at dinner tonight; but she could wait. For some reason he found the girl highly intriguing; her circumstances were so odd. And he felt like this was all new to her; like she'd never been alone before. And maybe she hadn't.

For the next few hours Jack attempted to keep her company. She started a fire, cried, and fell asleep. He tried to keep his distance so she wouldn't be cold, but Jack felt if he went farther she would disintegrate, like some wistful figment of his imagination.

When she fell asleep, her copious hair wrapped around her like a fur blanket, fumbling for a comfortable position on the cold hard ground, Jack simply sat nearby, alternating his gaze between her and the night sky.

Suddenly, to his left, a sparkly golden sand shot into the clearing. Sandy slowly came together from the sand, his face disapproving yet still light. In his hand a tiny sand version of Tooth appeared, pacing and disgruntled.

"Sandy. I know, I know, but I have to stay here. I don't know what's going on, but I found this girl crying, she's all alone, I can't just ditch her." Jack looked up at Sandy, who still looked just as disapproving. "Sandy. Tell Tooth I'll be there soon. I just have to make sure she's safe." Sandy disappeared into the sky and Jack felt a twinge of guilt; he was sure Tooth wasn't entirely happy with him at the moment. But he couldn't leave the girl alone, she just seemed so helpless.

At the moment he saw her body shudder and he instinctively went to her side as she woke up with a strangled scream. She was gripping the ground and he could almost hear her heartbeat. She started shivering again and he ran over to the tree again, jumping in it. He could tell she had seen the movement of the tree; her eyes widened and her body suddenly tensed up. The girl slowly walked towards the tree. "Who's there?" she said, her voice shaking.

Jack knew fully well he wasn't supposed to show humans he existed. The whole point of belief was belief without proof and he ruined the institution of it a bit too often. But he still couldn't help but want her to know he was there; he craved for her attention in an almost carnal way that was unfamiliar to him. He slowly brought his staff down to the tree and millions of tiny intricate ice patterns flooded over the bark. She fell backwards and guilt flooded him, but only for a moment. She didn't look scared as much as she looked intrigued; curious. He paused for a moment, considering what he was about to do, and then he scrawled with his fingertip into the ice, "My name is Jack Frost."

He could tell at that moment she believed because a tiny jolt went into his body the moment she did. Also, she screamed. Incredibly loudly; birds flew out of trees. "Oh my God who are you how did you get here what is going on," she shrieked, falling to the ground and reaching for a stick, pulling it up in front of her and pointing it at him.

He knelt down, slowly so as not to get hit, and reached out his hand in hopes of helping her up. "My name is Jack. And I'm not here to hurt you, the contrary actually." He flinched. _Why did I just talk like Tooth?_ He knew instinctively he was trying to be impressive and Guardian-like, so he straightened up and said in a more normal tone, "I'm sorry, I'm Jack. I didn't mean to freak you out, I just saw you crying back there, and well, I'm one of the Guardians, we're sort of like-"

"Yes, I know what Guardians are," she said shakily. "My name is Rapunzel. I'm sorry I yelled at you, I've had a hard night-" she wiped her eyes "-and everything is kind of freaking me out at this point. Why have you been watching me?" she asked. Jack couldn't help but flinch again- 'watching her' was a bit of a creepy way to put it.

"I just, I saw how upset you were, I thought I had to, like, look after you. You know?" It even sounded lame to say it out loud. "It's kind of what I do, like, all the time." There, a little less weird.

"Oh." Rapunzel's eyes softened. "Well… thank you. That means a lot, especially coming from a complete stranger." Jack felt sort of warm and satisfied until he realized that Tooth, North, Sandy, and Bunny were all probably waiting for him, completely annoyed, hoping he would show up in time. "I hope you didn't waste too much time," she said softly, looking up at him with the biggest green eyes.

"Oh, noo; I mean there was this dinner thing I was supposed to go to, but the Guardians are all very understanding." _No they aren't. _"They won't mind." _Yes they will._

"Well, I won't hold you back," she said shyly. "Thank you for all your help but I'll be fine on my own now I suppose." The last part was unsure and he instinctively knew she wouldn't be.

"You know, Rapunzel, if you want…" _Jack Frost don't go there. _"…you could always come to the dinner…" _Jack stop. _"…they wouldn't mind, they'd love to meet you! I can't just leave you out here on your own."

An excited look came onto her face. "Really?! You wouldn't mind? That would be so awesome actually, that would be super duper cool, I mean I wouldn't want to intrude, but oh my goodness!" The look of pure joy on her face made Jack realize in an instant he would stand the heat from the Guardians to keep her smiling instead of the crying from earlier. Of course, he had to remind himself that he hardly knew her; he couldn't conceivably care about her yet. But he did.

"Yeah, of course you can," Jack said, smiling. And he realized it wasn't just for her; he wanted her to come just as badly.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

POV of Rapunzel

Rapunzel could feel her heart beating as fast as she had ever felt it as she wrapped her legs around Jack and winced, preparing for him to take off into the night sky. She had no idea how fast he would go, how long it would take, and she certainly didn't know if she would fall into the oblivion of Earth to her very inconvenient death. She also didn't know if Mother was searching for her yet; she would be close to home by now, Rapunzel presumed.

"Alright," Jack said softly, looking upwards, "We're going to go now. Okay? Hold on tight because we don't need any casualties." Rapunzel looked up at him with complete horror and his face broke into an amused smile. "You'll be fine. I'll make sure you don't fall." And with that he took off into the sky. At first they shot upwards, his staff out in front of them, and she gripped around his shoulders so hard she could have sworn she was half choking him to death. But he didn't falter as they began to fly off to who knows where.

For most of the journey, Rapunzel would be embarrassed to admit, her eyes were squeezed shut as tightly as they'd ever been and her face was pressed into the crook of Jack's neck. For certain parts she would squint open her eyes and look down at the lights, her heart filling with awe.

She didn't know how long it took, but eventually they arrived at a small hole in what seemed to be a lake of ice. He slowly drifted to the ground and Rapunzel realized with a jolt that she was freezing cold. "Where are we?" she whispered, looking around. They seemed to be in the middle of a frozen wasteland.

"We're at the North Pole, almost to North's workshop. We're taking a shortcut, through a hole that Bunny-" he paused "-the Easter Bunny made. It's faster." Rapunzel nodded slightly and without further warning Jack unhooked her from his shoulders and jumped into the tunnel. Rapunzel's heart fluttered and she stood at the edge, staring down. Suddenly, she jumped backwards as Jack's head popped back up. "Come on. It's not that bad." She shook her head, frozen in terror, and Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her in.

They twisted and turned and flipped and suddenly were thrown out of the hole into a grand hallway. There was a table covered in food, a few odd yeti-like creatures walking around, and at the table were four very disgruntled looking hosts. Rapunzel felt as out of place as she ever had and she slowly looked downwards, her hair trailing in front of her face; and trailing a ways into the hole. She awkwardly managed to pull it out, piling it up in her arms, and finally looked up.

All of the Guardians, including Jack, were huddled in the corner, talking. From the 'ride' up she had gleaned enough information on them to guess which was which, and she judged their expressions. North seemed a bit annoyed, perhaps at how tardy Jack was, but not all that peeved. Sandy's face was rather neutral and seemed a bit bored. Bunny looked disgruntled but from what Jack had said, that was how he looked all of the time.

However, Toothiana, she looked _furious_. Her face had a look of utter annoyance on it and perhaps a bit of hurt. It didn't help that she kept glancing at Rapunzel with fire in her eyes; this was certainly not the Tooth that Jack had described to her. They continued arguing until eventually, apparently tired with the situation, Sandy floated over to her. Out of what seemed to be thin are (but was actually most likely the golden sand he was made out of) he conjured a top hat and tipped it to her, and then reached for her hand and let her to a chair. She sat down, feeling utterly unaccepted, and completely grateful that at least one of them had even bothered to acknowledge her- except Tooth, but that was hardly the kind of acknowledgement she wanted.

She whispered to Sandy, "Hi, I'm Rapunzel," and extended a hand. Sandy shook it; his hands were odd, when you touched them, the sand shifted but didn't totally move to allow your hand to go through. She glanced back at the group, who's discussion seemed to be coming to a close. Everyone seemed remotely satisfied with Jack's explanation, except Tooth, who's face seemed more than a little miffed. They all approached the table, Jack first.

"So! Guys! This is Rapunzel, she might be staying with me for a while until she gets her situation straightened out." _I can stay for a while? _Rapunzel thought, a tiny smile coming onto her face. "I just _know _you'll all be _very _welcoming of her, correct?" The statement seemed mostly directed at Tooth but the others nodded agreeably. North approached the table and extended a hand.

"So! You're the lass Jack has his eye on."

Tooth's glare deepened.

"Oh, no, no, no, no," Jack said hurriedly, his pale skin turning a bit pink. "North, we just talked about this." Rapunzel shook North's hand, blushing a bit, but feeling rather amused and glad he wasn't acting rudely towards her.

"Mm, yes, but I've learned not to take everything you say too literally," North said, laughing deeply and winking at Rapunzel in a way that made her feel so very welcome, but also even more nervous to live up to their standards that they must have already set for her. "Nice to meet you Rapunzel!"

"Nice to meet you as well," she said softly, smiling at him. Bunny pushed himself in front of the group and didn't extend a hand but merely nodded his head.

"I don't know why in your bloody mind you decided to trust _him_, but you're safe now m'dear, you're with the sane ones in this lot." Jack looked at him, obviously not amused. "Seriously though, why did you trust-"

"MOVING ALONG," Jack said loudly. He glanced towards Tooth, almost as if he was trying to will her with his mind to do something. She glanced at him and then at Rapunzel, who felt very nervous and very exposed.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Toothiana. The tooth fairy." She said, a bit stiffly but politely nonetheless. And with that they all sat down at the table. Jack sat to the left of her, and sandwiched between Jack and Sandy she felt a bit more comfortable than she had earlier.

"So, Rapunzel, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" asked Bunny, taking a sip out of some delicious looking soup.

"Is Jack holding you captive and you're too scared to tell?" North asked with a twinkle in his eye. Jack shot a glare towards him.

"How did he find you in the first place?" Tooth asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Guys, guys! Let her breathe. She just got here," Jack said, exasperatedly. He looked towards Rapunzel and she noticed for the first time how breathtakingly blue his eyes were. They locked eyes for a half second before she turned towards the rest, her face blushing, and began to answer their questions.

"Well, um, Jack found me in the woods, and I was alone, and-"

"Why were you alone?" Bunny inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I mean, it's a long story, but um, in short, um, well, I wanted adventure, so I left with, um, a guide, but uh, him and I got, uh, separated, and, yeah. I was alone and scared and he came and helped me." Rapunzel paused for a breath. "No, he's not holding me captive, and I don't know how he found me, I guess it must have just been good luck." She paused. "Or bad luck, depending on your outlook."

"Bad luck cause you met him, good luck cause you met us," Bunny said casually.

"Okay, yes, it's pick on Jack day," Jack said mockingly.

"Well you were the one late to the dinner I've had planned for months," Tooth said, and Rapunzel could see her reaching her breaking point. "The one you promised to be at."

"There are exceptions," Jack said, not seeming intimidated at all. North and Bunny awkwardly exchanged looks and then turned towards Rapunzel.

"Since you're staying with us for a while, let's show you where you'll be staying." North, Bunny, and Sandy almost stood up simultaneously, after having hardly touched their food or drink. "Come on dear, let's get you settled in." They left the dining hall to the hushed argument of Jack and Tooth. For the first time Rapunzel considered that perhaps Tooth and Jack were, well, 'together'. At first the thought made her heart pulsate oddly, from some sort of emotion she wasn't familiar of, and then she felt herself thinking of Flynn and her mood shot down. She wondered if he had come back for her. She was sure he had… he must have.


End file.
